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Editorial: Federal lawsuit over voucher program perplexing

Last Modified: Monday, August 26, 2013 5:43 PM
The federal government’s decision to sue the state of Louisiana over its implementation of its school voucher program befuddles.

The U.S. Department of Justice late last week filed a petition in federal court to block the 2014-2015 vouch program, claiming
that the program runs counter to the federal desegregation order that has been in place for decades in Louisiana.

The voucher program, initiated for the 2012-2013 school year, allows low-income students attending public schools graded C,
D or F to use state money to transfer to private schools.

In its petition, the Justice Department says the state of Louisiana did not ‘‘consult with or obtain authorization’’ from
federal courts overseeing the desegregation orders before handing out the vouchers. It points out that vouchers have been
awarded to students in at least 22 school districts operating under school desegregation orders that date back at least 35
years.

State officials, though, point out that the desegregation order, in part, prevented state money from being used to enable
white students to escape racially mixed schools.

State Superintendent of Education John White pointed out the irony, saying that the vast majority of students who are using
vouchers are black.

‘‘ ... We’ve got a scholarship program:
100 percent of the kids are low-income, 100 percent of the kids are in
failing schools
— C, D, or F schools, 90 percent of the kids are minorities,’’
said Gov. Bobby Jindal. ‘‘Eight thousand of those parents have
chosen to take these dollars and send their kids to better
schools, to other schools where they can get a better education,
where it is a better fit for their children.

‘‘Now the Department of Justice is
using the same rules that were there to prevent discrimination against
minority children
and is going after some of these parents and some of these kids
and saying, ‘we don’t know that we want to allow you to make
this choice. We want you to have to go a federal judge.’ We need
to provide a great education for every child.”

The voucher program certainly has
issues. Calling it a scholarship program is flat out wrong — there’s no
scholarship or earning
of the voucher money by a student on merit. Its first-year
implementation was clumsy with several school applicants being
exposed by newspapers around the state as being ill-prepared to
host students. And there’s the question of whether the voucher
program violates the Louisiana Constitution by allowing public
funds to be directed to private education.

But the federal government, in this case, appears to be lawyerin’ up the wrong tree.

It’s frivolous at best and points to the lack of homework on the part of the federal government. This decision will likely
cost federal and state dollars on a petition that should have never been filed.

• • •

This editorial was written by a member of the American Press Editorial Board. Its content reflects the collaborative opinion of the Board, whose members include Bobby Dower, Jim Beam, Crystal Stevenson and Donna Price.